


The Heart Wants

by Kryosfear



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Eventual Romance, F/M, Humor, Romance, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 09:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30103743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kryosfear/pseuds/Kryosfear
Summary: After an accidental adventure lost in the woods, Ben and Gwen grow closer during their summer trip and the years beyond.
Relationships: Ben Tennyson & Gwen Tennyson, Ben Tennyson/Gwen Tennyson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	The Heart Wants

“So, what do you think?” An elderly male voice spoke from the distance.

“Ben?” he said.

“Hey, Ben!” A young feminine voice chimed in from beside him.

“Huh?” The young boy set down his game controller and looked up from the small screen.

“I asked where you’d rather head tomorrow, the state fair, or a waterpark in the next town.” The man spoke again.

“What does Gwen want to do?” The boy looked over at the adolescent redheaded girl standing nearby, her face turning sour in anticipation of the next answer.

The stout older man walked from the front of the mobile home interior to stand beside his two grandchildren at the table.

“She voted for the water park,” he said.

Gwen glared at her cousin, practically daring him to continue his obvious antic.

Ben ignored her fiery green eyes and flashed her a brief smirk before looking up at their Grandpa, Max.

“Darn, I really want to go to the state fair tomorrow,” Ben said in an impressively sincere voice.

“I guess the tiebreaker goes to me then,” he said.

Gwen walked away to sit on the lower bunk at the back of the RV and read, she already knew what the decision was going to be.

“Why don’t we hit the fair tomorrow and go to the waterpark the next day? Since we’re here already,” their grandfather said.

“Sounds good, Grandpa!” Ben said.

Exactly what she knew would happen. What Ben knew would happen. The logical compromise.

“Gwen?” The man inquired.

“Mhm, works out for everyone,” she said, absently turning a page.

Ben stood quickly from the table to block Max’s view of Gwen.

“Hey Grandpa, can I go explore the forest? Since this will be my last chance and all,” he said.

“Sure, but remember the rules, it’s a national park so stay out of trouble…” Ben was already heading for the door after his Grandpa’s first word. “…And take Gwen with you,” Max finished.

Ben stopped in his tracks and spun around.

“No fair, why do I have to take the dweeb with me?” he said.

“Because I said so. It’ll be good for you two to spend some time together,” he said. “Or, you can stay in tonight and help me change the Rustbucket’s fan belt,” he added.

Ben groaned exaggeratedly before exhaling a drawn out “Fine…”

Ben peaked around their grandfather’s rotund frame toward his cousin Gwen, who was still reading her book, as she had all through the conversation of the last few minutes.

“No thanks,” she said, keeping her eyes fixed on the page. “I’d rather stay here.”

Ben perked up and peered at his grandpa in hope.

“Please, Gwen? I’d feel better with the two of you together,” he said.

She sighed, closing her book and standing up to face the elderly man. “Okay, Grandpa, for you.” She strolled around him to beat Ben out the door. “ _Not_ for _you,_ ” she directed at Ben.

Ben crossed his arms and followed her out of the Rustbucket and into their campsite.

She suddenly stopped short a few meters outside the campground, causing Ben to collide with her back and nearly topple them both to the ground.

“Watch it!” she yelled.

“Me? What are you doing?” he asked.

“I don’t know where we’re going. This is your thing, remember?” she said.

He grit his teeth to stop from grumbling and quietly walked around her, choosing a direction at random and proceeding ahead of her.

After a couple of minutes, they reached a clearing and Ben stopped to look around for their next direction.

“So what now, nature master?” she asked sardonically.

He shot her a quick sneer then thought about her question seriously for a moment.

“Let’s go find a lion!” he said.

“There aren’t any lions in the forest, doofus.”

“Mountain lions are still lions, dweeb.”

“Whatever, and anyway, didn’t you get enough adventure this morning?”

“That little bank robbery? That was nothing. I could handle something like that in my sleep.”

“You mean as long as grandpa and I are there to save the day while you’re busy napping on the job,” she said.

“You? Are you forgetting which one of us is the hero?” he said.

“The only thing I forgot is what a jerk you are!”

“A jerk that stopped three bad guys in like a minute.”

“You always act like this, why can’t you just admit that I saved the day too?”

“Duh, because you didn’t. You barely helped _me_ save the day!” He pointed his thumb to his chest.

“You wouldn’t be able to save anyone without that stupid watch!” She shot her finger at the device on his wrist.

“Oh yeah? Well you wouldn’t be able to _help_ without Charmcaster’s book.” He took a step closer and leaned his face in. “And I didn’t have to _steal_ the Omnitrix,” he smirked proudly.

She pursed her lip in a huff, biting back the words on the tip of her tongue even as frustrated tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. Ben glared on adamantly, refusing to give her the satisfaction of showing his growing concern.

Each of them held the stare, waiting for the other to break away first. Only when the tears stung her eyes did she turn away with a scoff, blinking away the tears and calmly walked out of the clearing, following a faded hewn trail.

Ben crossed his arms and mimicked her scoff as he watched her hike further away. He tapped his foot stubbornly against the rough dirt as she grew more distant, counting the seconds until she surely turned back to apologize or go back to the Rustbucket…any second now…just as she disappeared behind some thicket, he threw his hands up with a loud sigh and ran ahead to chase after her.

“Gwen, wait up!”

She heard him calling after her, but ignored the cries as she picked up the pace to out distance the loud pest. The minutes passed like that as she lead him deeper into the woods, Ben’s occasional pleas or insults scared away a group of birds here or there until she’d had enough. She knew she’d have to face him sooner or later, but it’d be nice if the former didn’t mean now. She quickened her pace again, walking as fast as she could to still be considered walking.

He’d apparently anticipated her increase of speed as he was gaining on her, which prompted Gwen to break into a full sprint through the woods so she wouldn’t have to deal with her cousin and his partial attempts at apologies. And she definitely didn’t want to apologize herself; not yet anyway.

“Gwen, come on, I’m sorry! Just stop!” he called after her, clearly out of breath.

She reluctantly slowed her strides, creeping down to a halt. Ben soon caught up and stood a few steps behind her hunching over with his hands on his knees as he panted for more oxygen.

She turned around and crossed her arms over her chest still trying to decide if she was ready to apologize.

“And?” she stated.

“And what? I said I was sorry.”

“You call that an apology?” she scoffed.

“Yeah, first you say ‘I’m’ then you say ‘Sorry’ and it’s an apology,” he snapped back.

“God, sometimes you’re just so…”

She shook her fists at the air and spun on her heel away from him. He sunk his head in a sigh and stared at the random debris on the forest floor.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to run away again…” he took deep breath to prepare for another impromptu game of tag through the woods. “…Gwen?” he looked up to see what had her silent.

Ahead of them on the trail stood a large black bear directly in front of Gwen.

The bear stared at her before it snapped its jaw open again and again with a horrendous sound like a starter pistol firing.

She stood completely still except for the subtle motion of her hand behind her back, brushing the air to tell Ben to back up and leave.

So he should just sneak away and let his cousin get eaten? Yeah right! He held his hand over the Omnitrix ready to trigger the dial.

Gwen’s mind raced as she desperately tried to remember which species of bear required which tactics during an encounter. A black bear, looks young, probably male. Does that change the plan? Does she play dead, does she make noise, does she climb a tree? Suddenly the young bear reared up on its hind legs and stood much taller than either of the two cousins. Gwen gasped and raised her hand up to direct whatever spell she hoped would save her. But as a massive furred arm swung down at her, one thought screamed in both cousins’ minds:

_No time…_

Before she could think about how bad it was going to hurt to be mauled to death, a pair of decidedly unfurry arms enveloped her and she was tackled to the ground out of the way of the bear’s lunge.

As they tumbled across the overgrown forest floor in a blur of leafage and limbs, the bear roared from the path provoking Ben to fling himself to his feet and roughly pull her up after him, keeping a fierce grip on her hand as he ran full speed in any direction that led away from the fearsome animal.

They ran as fast as they could, pushing past bushes, ducking below branches and weaving between thickets of trees. A few minutes later, they slow down realizing they lost the young black bear behind.

Gwen had managed to keep pace with Ben, but even with her longer legs, the last few minutes of running nonstop were taking a toll.

He slowed down but didn’t stop. His firm grip on her wrist somehow made her face redden more than the quick pace.

She flexed her wrist to get out of his grip, but he just held her strongly.

He’s always like this. So annoying she wants to strangle him one minute, then diving head first into danger for her the next.

“Ben, I think it’s gone.”

He kept dragging her fiercely by the wrist as he ran forward off trail.

“Ben! It’s not following us,” she said.

Ben stopped and looked behind them, and all around, listening as if he could hear bears better now than a few minutes ago. Once he saw they were safe, he dove at Gwen, pulling her into a hurried hug.

She stiffened instantly at the sudden embrace, more shocked than uncomfortable. In fact, as her arms tenderly found their way behind his back, she couldn’t remember having felt more comfortable.

“You’re okay. You’re okay, you’re okay,” he whispered against her cheek, mostly to convince himself.

A strange warmth ran across her face and neck as she held herself tighter against him.

“I _am_ okay, Ben,” she said quietly.

He jostled when she spoke, breaking from the hug a little too hastily and wore a strange look somewhere between embarrassment and guilt.

“We should be getting back, grandpa is probably wondering where we are,” he said.

She nodded.

“That’s a good question, and how do we get back from wherever here is?”

“You don’t know?” he asked in genuine surprise.

“Why would I, you were dragging me along, trying to rip my arm off,” she said.

“I don’t know. You usually keep track of stuff like this,” he said.

“It wasn’t exactly a straight line, Ben. I know we came through here, but…” she pushed through a short overgrowth of weeds. “God, it all looks so different from this direction,” she said.

“So, what now…” he met her eyes, “…Nature Mistress?” he smirked.

“That’s nature _Goddess_ to you. And we should get a higher viewpoint, and try to spot the campsite,” she said.

“Waybig, coming up!” he shouted.

She placed her hand over his as he dialed the watch in. He glared at her, expecting a stern no-it-all look on her face, but instead a gentle and warm expression was all he saw.

“Ben.” She pointed her finger up to the high canopy of the trees.

“Fine...party pooper,” he said.

“Give me a boost, I’ll see where we are,” she pointed her thumb to the large fir tree beside her.

“Can’t climb a tree by yourself, dweeb?” he said.

“Take a look, genius, this thing is huge, it’s not like you could do any better,” she said.

“Could too!” he said.

“Wanna bet?” she said.

She glared at him before her expression softened and she sighed not wanted a repeat of earlier.

“Look, I just need a leg up to the first branch, and then we can get out of here.”

He pretended to think about it, then shrugged and knelt down with his hands on his knee. She stood on his palm and jumped as he lifted her up higher. She made contact with the branch and tried to use the momentum to pull herself up, but needed to adjust her hands first. She was getting ready to swing herself up when she felt his hands press against her rear and shove her higher.

“Hey, hands off!” she said.

“Just climb up already!” he said, pushing her feet up the last distance.

She scrambled up to a sitting position on the first branch, and glared down at Ben. Then set to work climbing the higher branches like pegs, going at a steady but quick pace.

“Waybig would have been at the Rustbucket by now!” he yelled from below.

“Gimme a sec, geez!” she yelled back down.

She climbed higher but the branches were growing thinner, and even with her light weight, they were beginning to feel unstable. The tree went another ten or fifteen feet higher, but there’s no way she could climb that with her bare hands without thicker branches as footholds. She looked around, searching for a clearing through the trees but saw none.

“Well?” he called up.

She sighed and bit her lip as she carefully started back down the tall tree. When she reached the last branch she gripped the rough bark and swung her legs out below her, straining down as low as possible to decrease the distance she was about to fall.

Ben stood nearly directly below her, having remained in the same place. He glared up at her impatiently as she held onto the tree branch like a monkey bar, the natural swinging motion of her hold caused her shirt to billow open at the hem, giving Ben an unwarranted glimpse of her entire torso. His sight lingered for a moment before he stared off nonchalantly in the distance. He wasn’t sure why he felt so nervous, but he knew he shouldn’t be looking inside her shirt like that.

She dropped down suddenly and landed in front of him with the grace of a gymnast. He forced his uncertainty down and returned his gaze toward his cousin, waiting for her to tell him the good news.

“I don’t know where we are,” she said bluntly.

He glowered.

“The branches are too thin at the top, I couldn’t reach above the tree line,” she continued before he could complain.

Rather than mock or berate her, he simply smirked and held his left hand up to display the alien watch like some kind of trophy.

“Let me show you how it’s done, dweeb,”

“ _No Waybig_!” she said emphatically.

“I wasn’t gonna! It’s nothing Stinkfly can’t handle,” he said.

He reached for his wrist, dialing the alien watch to a slim winged silhouette and slammed the plunger down. What came next was a disappointment but hardly a surprise. His body transformed almost instantly into a large orange quadruped he had aptly nicknamed Wildmutt.

Gwen chuckled as his lack of control over the Omnitrix was showcased once again. He snarled menacingly and pounced forward at her. She gasped and ducked as he flew over her and landed on the tree trunk digging his claws in before craning his neck down and snorting out what could loosely be interpreted as laughter. She jumped to her feet with a frustrated huff and yelled up at him.

“That wasn’t funny, Ben!”

He ignored her and quickly climbed up the base of the tree, scrambling around branches and flying up the trunk.

He reached the top branches, his weight bending the thin trunk with the gentle wind, and peered the horizon with his eyeless sight, using the strange gills positioned on either side of his neck to smell the world around him. He sensed the trees and mountains and rivers that stretched for miles, but could not find a clue to where their camp was. Searching for a small clearing among millions of trees is a hard smell to pick up on.

He gave up on searching for a physical trail and decided to find a more traditional scent trail. He sniffed the air again, catching a whiff of a familiar aroma and followed it back down the tree.

He landed roughly in front of his cousin startling her slightly as she scowled at him. He took another whiff and a strange smell tickled his senses, something hidden inside the scent emanating from his cousin. There was something about that peculiar smell that drew him away from his tracking goals and ever closer toward Gwen and that enticing fragrance.

“Well, did you find anything?” she asked.

He circled around her, trying to find the source of his fascination. She watched him warily, trying to figure out just why he was stalking around her. After the first few rotations, she got a little nervous and would turn on the spot to face him whenever he reached directly behind her.

“Stop being so weird,” she said.

He didn’t respond in any fashion and simply continued pacing around her. If it were anything or anyone besides Ben, she’d probably be scared right about now, but even with all the contention between them she knew she didn’t have anything to fear from him other than the occasional prank. That must be what this was.

“What’s with you?” she asked.

Finally accepting he was not going to locate the origin of the scent, he snorted a wordless reply and lowered his head in failure.

He took Gwen’s scent into his gills once more and aimed his head in the direction of the decaying trail that wafted slowly through the air. He knelt down on the dirt, noticeably extending his back leg outward toward her and growled softly.

She was still confused by his strange behavior up until now but decided to write it off as “weird alien stuff” and walked up to him, placing a hand on the rough skin of his side.

“You want me to…”

He responded with a low grunt.

She stepped onto the back of his hind leg and kicked herself up onto the top of Wildmutt’s large frame as if he were a horse. The moment she settled on the hump of his back he took off at full speed, forcing her to nearly fly off as she held on for dear life. He grunted out a warbling snicker and steadied his pace, allowing Gwen to shift to a more casual position on his back.

She held her tongue again, since it wasn’t exactly unexpected. And at least he wasn’t being weird anymore. Weirder than Ben normally is at least.

Ben ran through the woods for several minutes until the scent trail began to fade. He angled around trees and rocks, quickly trying to catch any remaining wisp of her smell floating in the air, but anything left after all this time was being overpowered by the original source residing atop him.

“Don’t tell me, we’re still lost,” she said.

He bolted forward at random in a huff, running well below his top speed, and veering away from low branches and jumping over high bushes to accommodate the much less durable passenger on his back.

“It’s alright, Ben, we’ll get out of this,” she patted the side of his head in an unusually soothing manner. He tilted his head back to grunt a reply when another wave of that indescribable smell assaulted his senses and without intending to, slowed his stride to a listless crawl. Without a doubt, the scent was coming from Gwen.

He angled his head toward her trying to get closer to that faintly piquant aroma drawing him in. The sudden jostling and flex of his body knocked her off balance and she soon found herself sliding off his back and landing roughly on the hard dirt below.

He stopped and sniffed the air, verifying once again that the sweet smell was emanating from her direction.

“Ben! Be more careful!” she complained as she padded the dirt off her pants.

He circled around her once again and she watched him warily, turning about a couple times as he circled her. When he stood in front of her, he was sure now where the scent was coming from, and without thinking plunged his snout into her crotch. Her eyes shot wide and her face flushed. being completely disarmed by the bizarre situation. It only took a moment to get her wits and she quickly pushed off his head and backed up much further than necessary. He muddled after her, looking more predatory than ever, clearly aiming at a single destination, which scared the wits out of her, even though she didn’t fully understand why. He closed the distance as she crept backward. She tried to reason with him, but failed. She took a few more steps back when he suddenly stopped and growled desperately at her, which unnerved her further as she took one final step back, hitting nothing but air as her stride slipped off the edge of a dangerously high cliff. Her heart dropped and she thought it was strange her life wasn’t flashing before her eyes, she just stared at Ben in shock as a funny feeling took root in the back of her throat. Ben didn’t waste a second as he lunged after, gripping his front paws around her back just as she nearly disappeared below the cliff face and roughly pulling her against him.

The steep surface of the cliff became better defined in Ben’s “vision” as he fell. If he had access to all his limbs, he could navigate down the steep rock formation with ease but with two legs desperately clinging to his cousin’s tiny fragile form, the best he could do was hold on and make sure he hit the oncoming surface with his back. As they both tumbled through the air, he did just as planned and rolled listlessly until his back faced the slanted rock face just before making contact. He failed to withhold a whimpering grunt as the rough landing hurt slightly more than he expected. His speed and the steep face of the cliff caused him to skip off after he hit and continue tumbling. He repositioned himself again, taking the oncoming force onto his back and this time managed to hold in his breath as the pain wracked his body. Three more awful ricochets followed as they sped down the mountain side faster and faster, and each time he barely managed to protect the delicate girl tucked against him from hitting the surface until thankfully the cliff smoothed the angle of its face and slowly became less steep. With the descent slowing Ben’s Wildmutt form could no longer use hang time to rotate and land on his back so instead he gripped Gwen’s slender body tighter and rolled down the forming hill into the overgrown valley below. With the surface finally level, Ben used his back claws to dig into the dirt each time his paws were facing the ground and after a dozen or so rotations they had finally come to a stop just before the tree line.

When the world finally stopped spinning, Gwen found herself on top of Wildmutt, pulled firmly into the soft fur of his underbelly. A bright green light flashed as the alien beast transformed back into her cousin. His arms dropped off her to the ground and she quickly pushed herself up off his chest to examine him. She placed either hand on his cheeks and rustled him gently.

“Ben? Ben, wake up!” she said in a panic.

“That. Hurt.” He groaned.

She rested her forehead against his and sighed heavily in relief.

“Gwen?”

She opened her eyes, immediately meeting his own, an eyelash length away.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Thanks to you,” she smiled, practically touching noses with him.

“Yeah, I’m kinda awesome,” he smirked.

“Hold on, it’s your fault I fell in the first place. What the heck is wrong with you? Wildmutt went psycho on me!” She leaned up and pressed her hands hard against his chest in emphasis with her words.

“Hey, Gwen? Can you get off me now?” he asked unsure why the pressure her body put on his waistline felt so awkward.

She took stock of her position for the first time, and immediately scrambled off him, almost comically fast.

Ben followed her to his feet and looked up to the top of the cliff face, seeing just how far they actually fell.

“Come on,” Gwen grabbed his hand and pulled him along. “Let’s try and find another way up.”

They followed the base of the cliff for nearly an hour with no sign of it leveling out, all the while Ben fiddled with the watch quietly.

“It’s no use, even if we knew where we were going, it’s not safe to travel in the dark. We’ll have to camp out here for the night,” she said.

“Camp? With what? We don’t even have a tent,” he said.

“With nothing,” she said.

“Then it isn’t camping,” he said.

“Fine, we’ll have to sleep out here on the ground without camping. Better?” she glared at him.

“Not really,” he said.

She moved a few meters into the brush until she found a small clearing between the trees and sat down with her back pressed against the bark of one of the large pines.

Ben silently joined her, though he opted for the tree beside hers.

“Can you go heat-blast and make us a fire?” she asked.

“Can’t, I’ve been trying ever since the cliff. The Omnitrix must be on the fritz again,” he said.

She sighed a weary chuckle. “Of course it is,” she said.

“Don’t you know a spell for making fire, isn’t that like magic 101?” he asked.

“No, I haven’t found that yet. My spellbook isn’t exactly clear and concise. I have to do a lot of research before I try a spell most of the time,” she said.

“Well can’t you, like, guess a spell that makes fire? You know, sparkycadabra!” he said, waving an invisible wand at her face.

“I _could._ And I could also incinerate both of us accidentally if I incant the wrong spell,” she said.

“Huh…don’t do that,” he said.

She scrunched her face up and smiled a curt reply.

She pressed off the tree trunk and stood up, walking around the clearing and gathering up loose branches and twigs off the forest floor, as well as pocketing a couple small rocks.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Since we can’t do things the Ben way,” she dropped her small bundle in the center of the clearing. “I’ll have to make a fire the girl scout way,” she said.

“You can do that?” he failed to hide his impress. “So you gonna rub two sticks together and make a fire?”

“I _could_ or…” She swung the rock down hard a few times until it broke into pieces.

Ben leaned forward, obviously intrigued.

She grabbed a smaller piece and started striking another rock against its edge, causing red-hot sparks to fly down to the tinder and causing Ben’s eyes to light up in pyromanic delight. He watched as the tinder started smoking and as she got in close to blow on the smoke until it burst into flames. He looked down at his inactive Omnitrix and quietly pulled his knees into his chest.

Gwen caught sight of him from the corner of her eye, she didn’t know what upset him, but she could guess.

“Ben, could you grab the twigs and help me build the fire?”

He looked up at her and sprang to his feet, piling the whole bundle of wood on top of the burning tinder ball. She smiled and gently removed some of them, readjusting the branches to fit a sturdier fire as Ben followed her example. They soon had a small fire illuminating their small campsite, and with the job done, each rested quietly against their trees a few feet away.

“I’m sorry, okay?” he started.

She looked over at him, curiously doubting his sincerity and hating herself a little for it.

“I know you do more than I give you credit for.”

“…Thank you,” she said softly.

“I’m sorry too, I shouldn’t have snapped like that. You’re a hero, watch or no watch,” she said.

“Some hero, I’m useless without this thing,” he held up his left wrist.

“You saved me from a bear without it. A _bear_ , Ben,” she nudged her shoulder against his.

“It was a little bear,” he said.

She chuckled in her throat.

“More like a cat, really,”

She leaned further against him, nestling up against the encroaching cold.

~~~~

He awoke to the sound of birds, and reached for his face to rub the sleep from his eyes when his hand caught something. He looked down and saw her sound asleep, using his lap as a pillow with his hand tucked beneath her neck. As delicately as possible, he shifted his leg to the side to give his wrist space and slowly snaked his hand free.

Careful not to move too much, he turned the dial in the Omnitrix and pressed each button on its side, to disappointing results. He sighed softly hanging his head low and stiffening when she shifting slightly on his lap.

“You’re not that annoying when you’re asleep,” he mumbled while brushing the hair out of her face.

A surge of bravery grew in him and he closed his eyes to smell the air, more curious than anything, but couldn’t find that scent again. He leaned in closer, careful not to disturb the sleepy head he cradled in his lap, and inhaled slowly. All he could smell was the smoke from the dying fire and the woods around him, mixed with the smallest tinge of sweat that clung to both their bodies. He scoffed silently at himself and returned to rest upright, unconsciously finding her head once again and soothingly tangling his fingers through her fiery hair.

Her eyes fluttered open into the bright sun pouring through the canopy, the warmth above her equal to the warmth below her along with the rhythmic strokes brushing through her hair tempting sleep once more. She caught his eyes and he paused, the shock on his face almost made her laugh. The stillness in the air held them comfortably as she rolled onto her back, taking his hand with hers as his fingers slid further into her locks, and offering a sweet smile as a bid to continue.

Unsure how to explain what he was doing, or why he was doing it, Ben kept silent. But she wasn’t upset, or moving away, or making fun of him. His right hand was once again her stolen pillow, so he reached down with his left to resume touching her soft hair, as he reached her cheek the red glow from the Omnitrix switched to a bright green light and chirped its ready alert. He pulled his hands away, quickly untangling from her and grabbed at the watch with a grin.

“Alright!” he said.

When she sat up beside him brushing the dishevelment from the back of her hair, he thought he should apologize again.

“Good morning,” she turned with a smile.

“Yeah, morning.”

He flashed his wrist and returned the smile.

“That’s great, we can get back now,” she helped him to his feet. “We parked near the eastern entrance of the park, so we should be able to spot it from the sky if we head east,”

“You think you can find our way back?” he said.

“Now that it’s morning I can.”

“You have a spell for finding east, but not making fire?” he asked.

“Yep. Followthesuneous,” she mimicked his magical hand movements from last night.

He looked at her questioningly for a moment.

“Oh, duh,” he said.

“Ready for another ride on the Ben bus?” he snickered.

“Against my better judgment, yes,” she said.

He dialed in the winged silhouette and pushed the plunger down, instantly bursting through a bright green light as a giant flying insect.

“Stinkfly! Heheh.”

She stood next to him, avoiding his large transparent wings as he stretched out, giving her room to climb atop his thorax and grip on before he took off at full speed for the skies. They flew toward the sun, staying straight for the most part with the occasional gleeful swerve and course correction from Ben. After several minutes of flying, she spotted familiar ground in the distance.

“Ben, go left a bit!”

He turned to see what she meant and snickered in his alien voice. “We made it!”

He aimed in the direction of the campsite and flew at full speed. Gwen anticipated that and was already holding on tighter and lowering herself further against his back.

Near the edge of the forest just before the clearing, the Omnitrix beeped its alert and flashed red.

“Figures!” he said.

He quickly dove for the ground, pulling up just before making contact and the watch timed out, transforming him back to human and toppling both cousins to the ground.

She pushed herself up, her landing zone already feeling familiar.

“Every time,” he said.

She smirked, keeping him pinned a moment longer than necessary before standing up, and held out her hand to help him up. He took her hand and practically leapt to the ground.

“Let’s go!” he said.

Ben rushed out of the tree line as she followed, they both laughed when they saw the Rustbucket in the distance, and quickly made their way toward it. When they were almost there, the door of RV swung open and their Grandfather stepped out and caught sight of them. His face filled with delight and he ran toward them. They ran too and met with a large hug, each getting one of his burly arms wrapped around them.

“Do you know how worried I was?” Max set them down.

Gwen’s smile left and she opened her mouth to explain her role in them getting lost, when Ben spoke first.

“It’s my fault, Grandpa. I was picking on Gwen, and we kept getting further away. And then we didn’t know how to get back,”

She stared at him in utter amazement, before collecting herself and turning back to their Grandfather.

“That’s not true, it was my fault, I ran away when Ben was trying to apologize, and then there was this bear…”

“A bear!?” Max interjected.

“It’s okay, Ben…” she looked at Ben’s solemn face. “…saved me.”

“Sounds like quite a story. I’m just glad you two had each other,” he said.

“Yeah,” she said.

“Come on, let’s go inside. I think I could use a nap after all this excitement,” he said.

They followed him inside as he sat down on his bed. She spotted the piece of paper on the table and grabbed it to show to Ben as they both read to themselves.

_Ben, Gwen, I’m out searching for you right now, if you make it back before me, **stay here.** – Grandpa_.

“Oh that. I was out looking for you until just a little while ago. I only came back to get some plumber tech to track you,” he said.

“I’m sorry, Grandpa, really,” she teared up.

“Yeah, we didn’t mean it,” Ben said.

Their grandfather reached out and they came in for another big hug.

“It’s alright, I’m just glad you’re safe. And just know that I’ll always come find you, no matter what,” he said.

~~~~

Later that night, Gwen came out of the bathroom with freshly brushed teeth and a thin veneer of moisturizer on her face. She walked quietly toward her shared bunk bed as Grandpa Max was asleep again after his power nap earlier, only to find Ben had also fallen asleep on top of his blanket, before his turn to use the sink.

She reached down to wake him and tell him to go brush his teeth, but she stopped. He looked exhausted, and after the adventure they had, she was too. She leaned over and grabbed the far end of his blanket, wrapped it neatly over him and tucked him in safe and warm. She couldn’t help but smile a bit at him swaddled like that, until her face flushed and she dropped into her bed in a huff and buried her face in her pillow.

“Idiot.”


End file.
